Tuesday, September 29, 2009

As Dr. Bristol points out, had they started in the age of the Internet and You Tube, the Good Rats would be a household name, but they arrived too soon. Or they were too good. Or too hairy. Too something. Peppi Marchello and The Good Rats headlined arena shows in the NorthEast and got airplay, but they just didn’t explode like they deserved to. No one I know can figure it out. Everyone in NJ, NY--every Met fan, Yankees fans, Giants fan--was a complete Rathead. Anyone who saw them play was hooked forever.

But the old, original Good Rats are still alive and well, still playing reunion shows and making people crazy. And Peppi Marchello and his new Good Rats are still knocking people out as they make the rounds at local clubs.

Getting more sleep. People don’t realize how important sleep is. I was just having this conversation with Howard Zimmerman the other day. Howard’s the former head of iBooks and an excellent editor. I’d gotten into a dust up with somebody the night before and Howard asked if I’d been drinking at the time and I told him I was sober as a judge but terribly sleep deprived and he said, "That’ll do it."I meant what projects are you working on?

Why didn’t you say so? I’m working on a few top-secret things for IDW Publishing and a treatment for the proposed "Snaked" film.I thought I’d read that deal was signed.

It was. "Snaked" was optioned by Richard Saperstein and Elysium Films, but I’m under contract to turn in a treatment and if that flies then I’ll do the screenplay. And if it doesn’t fly, I’ll go catch up on my sleep.Assuming you get to do the screenplay - or at least the first draft - how hard will it be to let it go to the inevitable Hollywood rewrite and potential bastardisation of your creation?

It’s not like raising children, no matter what Sylvia Plath said. Crazy bitch wrote that seeing her poems edited was like watching her children get raped. What a fucking poseur thing to write! Spoken like a woman with an infertile womb…"Snaked" was a short story and then it was a comic and then it will be a screenplay and then, if the stars are aligned, a movie. Different stages in the lifespan of a creative embryo but it ain’t a child. It’s not even a puppy. Which is not to say I don’t care about it because I do care about it. But by the time anything reaches a big screen, it’s rarely a singular vision. You have to be Copola or Tarantino to get that, so I have no illusions. The "Spider-Man" you see on screen isn’t Stan Lee’s Spider-Man, and it’s 180 degrees from Steve Ditko’s twisted brainchild. But it’s cool.How has Snaked gone over with readers? As well as you expected? Do people "get" it?

I think readers liked it better than I did. I’m rarely satisfied with anything I’ve written. I still like the poetry section of Perverts, Pedophiles & Other Theologians. I think that might have been my best work. That or Wearing the Horns, which was a novella I did about the divorce culture, or about a man with a tiny penis, depending upon your vantage point. "Snaked" the short story, which preceded the comic by about ten years, was something I’m still comfortable with, but the comic book was an experiment and I didn’t have time to percolate it as long as I like to. Ask me in five years if I like it. But yes, I suppose readers liked it. The first print sold out.That says something, I guess. Any other books in the works?

Aardwolf is preparing my Comic Book Babylon, which will collect my "Past Masters" columns and some interstitial material. I began that column to help Dave Cockrum get his missed X-Men royalties from Marvel and ended up developing a sort of gonzo, behind-the-scenes look at the comics industry. There’s guest appearances by Harlan Ellison, Alan Moore, Neal Adams and quite a few others. And me getting drunk with Mark Texeira. Stan Lee wrote the introduction.

What’s with you and Harlan Ellison?

What does that mean?He’s somewhat controversial yet it seems in your eyes he can do no wrong. He seems to be a father figure to you.

None of those statements are true. Harlan is not controversial; he’s a man of impeccable integrity who won’t be pressured by society or individuals or money or terrorists or the unraveling of the fabric of the universe to do things he doesn’t believe in… or to shut up. And I’ve seen him do plenty wrong—he makes the same kinds of mistakes everyone makes, like putting too much sugar in his coffee or eating things that doctors say he shouldn’t eat or taking the wrong exit on the FDR. Don’t kid yourself—those are serious mistakes! But the types of mistakes others might claim he makes are not things I would call mistakes… Harlan isn’t a father figure to me. I had a perfectly wonderful father who gave me the best guidance a father could offer, and a terrific education and unconditional love; a father I adored more than anything in the world, and he was old enough to be Harlan’s father... Harlan is more like a big brother. After awhile, I tend to forget that he’s one of the century’s great writers. He’s just a dear friend I admire and love and find terribly entertaining… But, do no wrong? Of course he does wrong. Jesus did wrong! You think Jesus was happy with himself after he tipped over that table in the Temple? No one wants to go home feeling like a klutz.Tell me about your children.

The oldest two are already better fighters than most men will ever become.And that’s important to you?

Of course. That's why I trained them. My boys started in my dojo learning Shotokan, then graduated to mixed martial arts, which is the trend these days, thanks to the UFC.Is that a good thing?

No—that’s a great thing. MMA was the natural progression for anyone who took competitive fighting seriously. My teacher, Grand Master Richard Sensei Lenchus, always stressed the practical aspects of street fighting in our dojo. If you concentrate on sports fighting—on speed tag for points—you lose the entire reason for martial arts. The arts were designed to protect individuals from attackers, not to win trophies. MMA is serious, real-world martial arts. In a one-on-one situation, you’re almost always at an advantage if you have grappling experience; if you have a ground game. But in a bar fight, where if you land on someone his buddy might clock you in the back of the head with a beer bottle, well you’re a damn fool to take it to the ground. My sons, who are excellent wrestlers, can single-leg or double-leg you in the blink of an eye and you’re on your back before you know what’s flying. Then it’s ground and pound and you’re waking up with a crowd around you. Their years of competitive grappling are the perfect arsenal for one-on-one, even against opponents 30 or 40 lbs. heavier. But my game is stick and move. I was trained to tag the first guy and move on to the next guy before the first one hits the ground. It’s a different approach. One-on-one, my sons can take me down now. Three-on-one, you’d pick me. Even at 47 and out of shape, that’s what my training was all about… So, to answer your question, yes, that’s a good thing. Men need to teach their sons to fight. They need to teach their sons other things, too, but that’s one of them. You don’t teach them to pick fights, but you teach them not to fear fights. Big difference.

It’s almost a taboo subject to broach, but there’s a real feeling among black comics creators that there’s a racist undercurrent in comics, even if subconscious, on the part of readers and bosses. Do you have any feeling or evidence of that in your experiences?

Sure. That’s what I know so that’s what I write. All writers do that. Your life and experiences create a confluence of material that you draw upon. I’m rock-and-roll culture. I’m 1970s post-Nixon mod. I’m Marvel Comics and New Wave science fiction and 20th Century literature and Beat poetry and baseball and Northern New Jersey. And I’m an observant Jew. Add a little salt, it goes down fine with a good tequila.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Handsome Dick Manitoba of the Dictators (and late of the MC5) will be writing the introduction to THE WHOREHOUSE MADRIGALS. I am choked with delight. The book, from Aardwolf Publishing, will feature a cover by award-winning fantasy painter Kelly Freas. It is scheduled for February 2010.

I will have a handful of lettered copies, signed by Dick, artist Mike Handerson and myself. Want one?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Avram Davidson's ROGUE DRAGON returns to print this month in the NEW CLASSICS OF THE FANTASTIC series that I had the honor of editing. Harlan Ellison provides a warm and wonderful new introduction to the book.

I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Avram while he was alive. I only know this great man, this great writer through his startling work and through his generous widow Grania Davis, and through his friends and students who loved him so and raved about him, including Harlan and Bob Silverberg and Jack Dann (who edited the enviable Wandering Stars and Avram's Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven).And I am one of them now.

Meth Addict

Attempting to post comments to this blog? Note that I don't accept anonymous comments. No guts, no glory.

Eye of the Beholder

Meth is a dangerous writer. He doesn’t seem to care if you like him.- Neal Adams

Meth’s writing is fresh and absorbing—clever and replete with surprises.- Stan Lee

Anyone who can give Barry Windsor-Smith a pissy fit is okay in my book.- Joe Staton

The only thing about Cliff’s writing that makes me crazy is the demented titles he puts on them. For a guy who writes as well as he does, and who thinks as deeply as he does, I can’t figure it out! - Harlan Ellison

Clifford Meth is one of dark fiction's best-kept secrets.- Barnes and Noble

Meth is one of the more intriguing writers of short stories to arrive in recent years. A damned fine writer. He does not write the easy stories.- Tony Isabella / The Comic Buyer’s Guide

Meth’s imagination, integrity and insight are touched by a dark, often perverse humor. It’s always exciting to discover new writers on their way up—and Meth’s course is worth charting. - Jim Steranko

I don’t know how much money the Cockrums got, but having a friend like Clifford Meth is worth more than a million dollars. - John Romita

Cliff’s writing has attitude. While his stories are frequently angry or outrageous, they’re all honest insights into the human psyche. - Dave Cockrum (co-creator of The X-Men)

Meth is a unique and exciting voice--funny, twisted, visionary. His insights into character and culture are often startling and his stories, always entertaining. I am a huge fan. - Richard Saperstein, Pres. The Weinstein Company

Clifford Meth sharpens the mundane details of everyday life to a razor's edge. I know of no other experience so simultaneously depressing...and uplifting. - Steve Brown, Chairman IDT Entertainment

You write character dialogue like O'Hara & string words together so effortlessly, kiddo. Kudos to you! Love good writing--the stuff so rare in comics & animation, my two vexing venues...I'm ossified, I'm sure, by actually reading top story work. - Alex Toth

Although they're called dark fiction, there's a "real" quality to Clifford Meth's stories that lifts them up and out of his books. And each successive story remains unique enough to make me start another, wondering what he'll come up with next. - Steve Forbert

Clifford Meth knows things. Dark, dank, nasty things... He doesn't scrape away the barnacles covering the hull of human interaction so much as he lifts up the barnacles, describes what's under them, and then puts the barnacles back and walks away with his hands in his pockets, whistling in the dark. - Peter David

Clifford Meth has done more to make the comic book industry better for its creators than has the collective career of many good people working within it. Those who speak much and do little struggle to fathom how some inspire granduer with few words. To them, Clifford Meth is of the unfathomable. - Michael Netzer

[Meth's] work is about the dark side of life, as if he were sculpting beautifully realistic statues while working exclusively in blood and excrement. And then setting them on fire...I'm a huge fan. I read him mouth open and giggling, stunned, amused and aroused. - Bill Messner-Loebs

I read Clifford Meth because the guy has a unique niche. He doesn't write fiction--he writes punk fiction! - Andy Shernoff (The Dictators)

Meth's writing is dark, relentless and always in your face. It doesn’t make for easy reading, but it is highly emotional and makes you pay attention, which is the best thing a writer can do... He writes from a place others won’t walk. - Marv Wolfman (creator of Blade)

Every Clifford Meth story is a tale of two balls. - Peppi Marchello (The Good Rats)

If you have missed the true, revealing richness of [Meth's] implications, then consider this an urgent reminder--a rap on the knuckles--to read it again. - Robert Bloch (author of Psycho)

Cliff writes very well about very intimate subjects.- Steve Gerber (creator of Howard the Duck)

It's easy to be your friend when there ain't no shit coming down. It's when the nails are being driven into your wrists that you find out whether somebody is a real friend and a stand-up person. And that's Cliff. - Harlan Ellison

Cliff, on behalf of the creative community, let me be the zillionth to thank you for the great care and Ellisonian-level protectiveness you've shown to the giants. - Mark Waid

Saying good things about Clifford Meth is like giving endorsements to Zorro. - Barney Dannelke

Comics for Sale

In addition to representing Dave Cockrum's personal collection for his Estate, I am selling my Silver Age collection. Click here for details.